I am asked daily by friends and colleagues for an easy but exotic curry recipe. It is so easy for me to come home from work and quickly throw together some rice and curry that is never occurs to me to post the recipe to my blog. But here it is – a very simple, quick but tasty weekday curry.
The secret to great curry is grinding your fresh ingredients. My poor mother tried to drum that into my head but I never paid much attention to it until now. And, she is right. I typically just grind my fresh ingredients in a blender or a food chopper and it makes a world of difference.
Ingredients:
- 2 Ibs of Chicken (boneless thighs or breasts) - cut into small pieces
- 1 cup of fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup diced up fresh garlic
- 4 shallots – sliced
- I red onion sliced
- 1 -3 jalapenos sliced
- 1 cup coconut milk or 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup of Garam Masala
DIRECTIONS
Step 1 : Prep Ingredients
This step can save you a lot of time. Slice and dice all your fresh ingredients.
Sliced Jalapenos for some heat
Sliced Red Onions to get the Curry started
Step 2: Grind It!
In a blender or Food processor, combine and grind the garlic, ginger, shallots, jalapeno and cilantro. Add 1/4 cup of water to make it easier to blend it. It does not have to be smooth. You will end up with a bright green mixture that should smell great (if you like cilantro).
STEP 3: Cook the Curry
- Heat 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a large pot or Dutch overn
- Add your sliced onions and the chicken. Stir it and wait for it to brown .
- Go ahead and add the entire green mixture
- Let it simmer for around 10 – 15 minutes
- Add your Garam Masala and mix it in well
- Add either your coconut milk or plain yogurt to the pot. Please pick either one and not mix the two!
(This is a special note to my friend Kyle: Kyle, do not mix the 2. Pick one. And, only use plain yogurt. Vanilla or any flavored yogurt will NOT work).
- Let the mixture simmer and cook for 20 – 25 minutes. Ensure that there is enough liquid in the pot. You can always add additional water. At this point, the curry should be finished. Serve with Basmati Rice.
Chicken cooking stovetop mixed in with the bright green cilantro mixture
Serve warm and you can always garnish with cilantro
Note from the Kitchen:
This is really easy recipe for an everyday curry. You need to adjust the spice level by adding more or less water and of course, controlling the number of Jalapenos to the mixture. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.
The Aftermath of Cooking Curry – Making your kitchen smell better
As much as I love my curries, I hate my kitchen and house to smell like Curry. And anyone who cooks curry knows that the smell will permeate through the house. It smells wonderful when you are getting ready for dinner but no one really, wants to wake up to a curry smell. So here is an easy recipe to get rid of the curry smell in your home.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of whole cloves
2- 3 cinnamon sticks
3- 4 cups of water
slices of lemon or an orange (optional)
Directions:
Combine there ingredients in a pot and let the water boil for as long as you can. You can add more water if you need to. The cinnamon and cloves produce a wonderful smell that neutralizes kitchen smells. Of course, you will have to like the smell of cloves and cinnamon for this to work.
Let me know how you enjoy the curry.
Looks delicious! And great tip on how to neutralize the curry smell.
Thanks for stopping by. Let me know how it works out if you try the recipe.
what is Garam Masala? where does one find this?
Garam Masala is a blend of Indian spices. Here is a link to more than you ever want to know about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garam_masala
But, Garam Masala can be found fairly easily in most large Grocery Store such as Kroger, Whole Foods, Fresh Market,etc. Most of the mainstream spice manufactures make them. As seen here: http://www.mccormickgourmet.com/Products/Blends/Garam-Masala.aspx
You can find it in the Spice Rack aisle or the Asian food area.
I will be making this recipe SOON!
To Kyle — Garam Masala is one of my favorite spice blends. It used to be very hard to find, but now, like Shareen said, you can find it every where. I use it on lots of things — especially a wonderful stew I make with eggplant, chickpeas, tomatoes, ground bison, golden raisins, olives and pine nuts.
Thanks for the odor-reducing tip, Shareen. I could have used that the other night when I cooked Salmon and the whole apartment smelled for two days!
Mary Beth,
The stew sounds quite amazing. Perhaps you would consider being a guest blogger and share the recipe with us.
Sure! It’s very basic:
Using a large stew pot, brown one pound of ground bison (seasoned to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper) in a little olive oil, taking care not to burn it, because bison is VERY lean. (You can substitute lean ground beef, or turkey, but bison is way more flavorful.)
Remove the browned meat, then add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add a large diced onion, a couple of cloves of minced garlic, and a good size peeled eggplant cut into cubes. Cook, stirring often, over medium to medium-high heat until the eggplant is tender. (The eggplant will absorb lots of oil, but you won’t need to keep adding very much if you don’t let the heat get to high. But if it starts to stick, add a little more oil.)
Add the browned meat back to the pot, along with one can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, two 15-oz cans of diced tomatoes, one can of drained sliced ripe olives, a couple of good handfuls of lightly toasted pine nuts and a couple of good handfuls of golden raisins. Add Garam Masala seasoning to taste (I use at least one tablespoons, maybe two) and stir well.
Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered for about 20 minutes. Serve over cooked Basmati rice (or regular white rice).
Enjoy!!
Wow, this looks so yummy =)
It is our favorite curry at home. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a chance to try the recipe.